Nicholas Hovey made it two-for-two on the new season with his second win in Bandit competition. He took over the lead from RJ Marcotte on lap 9 and was unheaded from there to the lap 15 conclusion. Marcotte stayed on his tail to claim second ahead of PJ Evans, Tyler Barry and Devin Deshaies.
At the outset, Evans took the lead off the start, outgunning Deshaies on the outside pole. Hovey leapt from sixth to third and began to pressure the leaders. Deshaies looked under Evans and succeeded to the lead, but one lap later, Marcotte had eased him out and took over.
Hovey was in second by lap 3 and pressuring the leaders with Deshaies at his back. Lap 3 saw them trade some paint and Deshaies pushed up the track in turn four allowing Hovey the advantage. By lap four, Marcotte had the lead with Hovey on his tail, followee by Deshaies, PJ Evans and Barry.
Two laps later, the field was single file.
Lap 22 saw Joel Newcomb trying to hold Barry off and contact was made. Newcomb slapped the wall going into turn one. He retired for the evening.
On the restart, Marcotte and Hovey faced off with Deshaies and Evans behind them. Marcotte claimed the lead ahead of Hovey, Deshaies, Evans and Barry. They strung out single file in this order and paraded until Marcotte went around in turn two. Hovey avoided him, but Deshaies couldn’t.
The lap 9 restart faced Hovey against Evans. Marcotte went to the rear but on the start was hard on the pedal, rushing forward with abandon. Meanwhile, Hovey retained the lead, ahead of Evans and Barry. Marcotte got under Barry, then went to Evans to steal second. Looking ahead, Hovey was cruising with a ten-car lead and one lap remaining, and that set the finish.
Rounding out the top ten were: Ryan Arieta, Teddy Welch, Riley Caron, Nathan Smith and Newcomb.